Egg tray for incubators



June 4, 1929. w. D. HARVEY 1,715,755 EGG TRAY FOR INCUBATOKS Filed June 6, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 '7 J. n ve -ar- June 4, 1929. w. D. HARVEY 1,715,755

EGG TRAY FOR INCUBATORS Filed June 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented June 4, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM DOW HARVEY, OF MAOOMB, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 AMERICAN STEEL PROD- UCTS 00., OF MAOOMIB, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

EGG TRAY FOR INCUBATORS.'

Application filed June 6,

My invention relates to egg trays for incubators of the common type in which the eggs are incubated in drawerlike trays disposed above a .socalled nursery chamber.

Generally speaking, my invention aims to provide a simple, readily ventilated and inexpensive egg tray of this class which will enable the eggs to be turned by simple longitudinal movements of a slide mounted in the tray, which will afford a large initial egg storing capacity in proportion to the size of the tray, and in which an initially closed hatchway will later permit the hatched chicks to drop to a nursery below the tray.

More particularly, my invention aims to providean incubator tray in which the eggs are initially supported partly by a pair of stationary foraminous members adjacent to the ends of the tray, and partly by a foraminous slide which can be moved so that it alternately covers the said stationary members, and aims to provide a slide for this purpose which includes a normally closed but readily uncovered hatchway opening through the space between the stationary foraminous members.

, Moreover, my invention aims to provide a simple and inexpensive construction of this -type which will afford the needed rigidity in a light slide construction and which will prevent the slide from catching on. the stationary parts of the tray. Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a plan view of an incubator tray embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged and fragmentary vertical section taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged and fragmentary vertical section taken along the line 83 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary plan view of the incubator tray of Fig. 1 with the slide moved away from the left-hand end of the tray.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the tray with egg-engaging rods and the entire slide removed.

Fig. 6 is a reduced plan view of the slide with the detachable slide section removed so .as to open the hatchway.

Fig. 7 is a plan view ofthe detachable slide section, drawn on the same scale as Fig. 6.

In the illustratedembodiment, my incuba- 1927. Serial No. 196,739.

tor tray includes a rectangular frame having sides 1 andends 2 provided intermediate of their height with horizontal ledges 8 disposed in a common plane, and also having laterally spaced stiffening bars 4 spanning the ends of the frame and disposed with their tops approximately in the same plane with the said ledges. Secured to the ledges 3 adjacent to the two ends of the frame are two stationary screens 5 and 6, which desirably are short in proportion to the length of the frame and preferably of equal length. Each of these screens extends for the entire interior width of the frame and desirably has at its inner edge a metal binding 7 to provide a smooth surface over which the adjacent end part of the slide in the tray may move.

The corresponding slide comprises two screen sections 8 and 9 spaced from each other longitudinally of the slide and rigidly connected-as shown in Fig. 6+to form a slide which is .slightly longer than the distance from the inner edge of either stationary screen to the outer edge of the other stationary screen, or in otherwords slightly longer than the distance between the two equivalent stationary screens plus the length of one of these stationary screens. One of the two screen sections (8) of the slide is preferably of the same length as either of the two stationary sections, while the other slide screen section (9) is considerably longer, so as to leave a relatively short hatchopening 10 between these two slide screen sections.

When the slide as thus proportioned is set into the tray of Fig. 6, its end portions continuously rest respectively on the two stationary screens, and the slide when moved up against oneend of the frame as shown in Fig. 1, has its shorter screen section 8 entirely above the stationary screen 5. At the same time, the larger slide screen section 9 only slightly overlaps the other stationary screen 6, and the hatchway 10 is adjacent to the inner edge of the stationary'screen 5. This hatchway is normallyclosed by a movable (and desirably detachable) slide screen section 11 of a width substantially fitting the hatchway, and this detachable slide screen section desirably has supporting end bindings 12 raised slightly above the screen 11 so that the screen 11 will be in the same plane with the slide screen sections 8 and 9 when these bindings rest on the screen frame portions 13 which connect the two screen sections 8 and 9 in permanently spaced disposition as shown in Fig. 6.

With the three screen sections of the slide thus disposed in a common plane and adjacent to one another, these sections combine to form a foraminous slide which can be moved freely back and forth. within the tray when the latter is loosely filled with eggs is extending transversely of the tray in the usual. manner. To cause the movement of the slide to turn eggs, 1 provide spaced rods 15 extending transversely across the tray near its upper edge, which rods have their ends supported in recesses 16 formed in the inner faces of the sides of the frame as shown in Fig. 16.

lVhen the tray is initially filled with eggs, some of the eggs will rest alternately on the stationary screens and on slide screen sections, according to the end of the tray to which the slide has been moved, the difference in their height (with ordinary wire mesh employed for the slide screen sections) being too slight to affect the turning or to damage the eggs during the turning. As the incubation period advances, the eggs which do not show indications of fertility are gradually removed and when the time for hatching approaches, some of the eggs in the tray are shifted in position so as to have none over the detachable slide section. This slide section 11 is then removed, thereby leaving the hatchway 10 open sothat the hatched chicks can drop down to the nursery which is usually disposed in the incubator below the tray or trays;

By making the shorter slide screen section 8 fully as long as the stationary screen 5 which it is adapted to overlap, I prevent the detachable screen section from catching on the edge of the stationary screen 5, and by making these two screen parts of substantially the same width, I can dispose the opened hatchway adjacent to the said stationary screen. And, since a slide movement of relatively few inches sufiice's for turning the eggs each stationary screen only needs to be of about that width. Consequently, the opened hatchway can be within about rather few inches of one end of the frame,- so that the hatchway will readily show light coming into the nursery at the corresponding end of the incubator, thereby attracting the chicks to the ha'tchway.

Any suitable means can be provided for manipulating the slide, such as an angleshaped handle 17 fastened to the bottom of the larger slide screen section 9 as shown in Fig. 2. The material employed for both the stationary and the slidable egg-supporting members (heretofore designated as screens) can also be varied, but is preferably foraminous to permit the ready circulation of air, and in practice I have found galvanized wire screening suitable for this purpose.

So also, other portions of my egg tray may be modified from the above described details of construction and arrangement, as many changes might obviously be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

I am aware that egg-turning trays have heretofore been proposed in which a rigid bottom portion slides bark and forth over two short end portions, and in which one of those end portions can be removed to afford a llatchway for the dropping of the chicks. Such egg trays have numerous objections in practice, one being the fact that the removable bottom section which alfords a h atchwa-y must be of a sufficient minimum length to correspond to the movement required for turning the eggs, plus the additional movement required to allow for the sliding (skidding) of the eggs before they are halted by the tray end or the baffles. For this reason, the re movable section of the bottom in the heretofore devised trays has had to be much longer than is necessary for the required hatch'way, thus reducing the effective capacity of the tray. On the other hand, the removable section in my tray can be much shorter than the required sliding movement, so that I can secure a larger capacity in a tray of a given size.

In the above mentioned earlier types of egg trays, the partial overlapping of the removable bottom section by a main bottom section also compels the user to lift or tilt the latter when removing the detachable section. Vlien this is done by the average farm hand, the eggs on the tilted main section carom into each other, so that considerable breakage results. This is also avoided by my construction, as the detachable section is disposed so that it can readily be removed without tilting or otherwise moving any other bottom portion.

I claim as my invention:

1. An egg tray for an incubator, comprising a frame, a pair of relatively short and stationary foraminous bottom members extending across the frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the frame; a foraminous slide movable back and forth above the said bottom members, the said slide being slightly longer than the distance between either end of the frame and the nearer edge of the bottom member which is adjacent to the other end of the frame, the slide having an opening therein spaced from both ends of the slide by a distance at least equal to the length of one of the bottom members, so'that the said opening is continuously above the space between the two bottom members; and a movable foraminous member supported by the slide and normally closing the said opening.

2. An egg tray for an incubator, comprising a frame, a pair of relatively short foraminous bottom members secured to the frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the frame; and a sliding member slidable longltudinally of the tray upon the said bottom members and somewhat longer than the distance between one of the bottom members and the opposite end of the frame; the sliding member comprising a pair of screens each not less in length than one of the bottom members and separated from each other by a free space, spacer means rigidly connecting the two screens, and a movable screen normally extending across the said space.

3. An egg tray for an incubator, comprising a frame, a pair of relatively short foraminous bottom members secured to the frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the frame; and a sliding member slidable longitudinally of the tray upon the said bottom members and somewhat longer than the distance between one of the bottom members and the opposite end of the frame; the sliding member comprising a pair of screens each not less in length than one of the bottom members and separated from each other by a free space, spacer means rigidly connecting the twoscreens, and a movable screen normally extending across the said space and supported by the spacer means.

4. An egg tray for an incubator, comprising a frame, a pair of relatively short foraminous bottom members secured to the frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the frame; and a sliding member slidable longitudinally of the tray upon the said bottom members and somewhat longer than the distance between one of the bottom members and the opposite end of the frame; the sliding member comprising a pair of screens each not less in length than one of the bottom members and separated from each other by a free space, side members rigidly spacing the two screens and each secured to one lateral edge of each screen, and a movable screen normally supported by the side members and extending substantially across the said space.

5. An tray for an incubator, comprising a rectangular tray frame, a pair of relatively short foraminous bottom members secured to the tray frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the tray frame; a rectangular screen frame slidable upon the bottom members and slightly longer than the distance between one of the bottom members and the opposite end of the tray frame, two screens secured to and extending transverse ly of the screen frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the screen frame, each screen being at least as long as one of the bottom members andthe joint length of the screens being less than the length of the screen frame so as to leave an opening between the screens; and a detachable screen member normally supported by the sides of the screen frame and extending substantially across the said opening.

6. An egg tray for an incubator, comprising a rectangular tray frame, a pair of relatively short foraminous bottom members secured to the tray frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the tray frame; a rectangular screen frame slidable upon the bottom members and slightly longer than the distance between one of the bottom members and the opposite end of the tray frame, two screens secured to and extending transversely of the screen frame respectively adjacent to the two ends of the screen frame, one screen being substantially equal in length to either of the bottom members and the other screen being of such a length as to leave an openin between the two screens; and a detachable screen member normally supported by the sides of the screen frame and extending sub stantially across the said opening. 7. An egg tray for an incubator, comprismg: a rectangular frame; a pair of relatively short foraminous bottom members fast with respect to the frame and respectively adjacent to the ends of the frame; and a slide having its end portions resting continuously on both of the said bottom members, the slide being shorter than the interior of the frame so as to be movable longitudinally of the tray; the slide including rigid foraminous portions covering substantially its entire area with the exception of an opening disposed so as to be continually over the space between the said bottom members, the slide also including a movable foraminous portion normally closing the said opening.

S7igned at Oakland, California, June 1, 192

WVILLIAM DOW HARVEY. 

